St. Landry democrat., 1887-12-24

village the presence Of such house would
keep the ewes and ears of the curious so
constantly alert that in time the place
would have to yield its secrets, perhaps by
force, for instances have been known of rus
tics breaking into house in the name OF the
law or Judge Lynch simply to satisfy curl
osity that had grown too strong to be resisted.
But it was different on the western edge Of
Manitoba, where The Poplars" still resisted
curiosity after years of impenetrablllty. l
had almost said that the house itself had
never been seen. for it was buried IN the
heart of four sections Of rolling land, III a
miniature valley; the trees and bushes on
whose sides hid it as completely as If they
had been vast curtains of green cloth. But
the extent of the park around the house
would have served almost without the rank
natural greenery, especially as all was IN
closed by fence that was almost a stockade
and that was adorned with the simple, but
forcible, warning, "Trespassers, Beware!' 1t
was not that the warning frightened the far
parted jewellers, for the pioneers Of Canada
are not of the stuff that a threat or even an
armed man frightens, but all were immersed
in the struggle to make living; and as Eos
dycks household in The Poplars'' did not
intrude itself in their lives, they gave their
whole attention to their own affairs, and con-
tented themselves with adding strength to
the wings of that gossip which had begun by
declaring Fosdyck an American fugitive, and
now credited him and his grown-up son
with being allies ola band, or perhaps bands,
of thieves who made his park a station and
rendezvous in their raids across the border,
some forty miles distant. 1t was even whls-
pered by some that Fosdyck was counterfeit
ing American money and sending it to con-
federates in New York. What mattered it
that those of the suspected thieves, who
showed themselves outside the park, looked
and acted like gentlemen, so long as they
were suspected of being outlaws? What
mattered it that the boxes Fosdyck shipped
to New York were labeled, "Birds-dont
delay" and were directed to taxidermist,
so long as the neighbors agreed that
they contained counterfeit money in small
bulk hidden among the feathered game?
1t was indeed mystery that THE Poplars'
held. In ten years neither the father nor
son, who kept house there without the aid Of
any woman except the malevOlent-looklng
Indian squaw at the gate had ever spoken to
a soul in the neighborhOOd unless it was to
transact the business of receiving from the
station agent all their necessaries which
cameby freight,o or sending away packages IN
the same manner, or calling at the store tor
their mail and ordering small purchases OF
provisions when their regular supply was de-
layed-al ways without so much as passing
the time of day or bowling when they went
in or out of the store or the station. The
squaw, who dwelt by their gateway in the
only skin tepee seen in Manitoba for years
Though before the whites came and the buff
falo vanished there were no other sorts OF
tepees), seldom left her post, but spent her
days at scraping and polishing into ebon
glossiness the horns of buffaloes picked up
on the prairie by the Fosdycks and brought
to her. This is now the main pursuit OF the
squaws in that part of Canada. The specu-
lators are gathering these relics that once
dotted the prairie to send to the sugar retiners
of the States, but the Indians do not aid
them, for a pair of time-beaten, rough and
clay-colored horns can be turned by SIX or
seven weeks of patient labor on the part or
their squaws into lustrous black ornaments
for the decoration of the white mans homes |
at clear prolific the buck who ooes moth
ing but find them-of dollar pair while |
the spectators only get something like five
dollars ton for the horns as they are found.
Thus this wrinkled bag of a savage worked
at the gateway of "The Poplars" and was as
silent as the rest.
Fosdyck and his son ranged the prairie |
with their fowling-pie in search of sport
and always with more success than any
others who were out on the same days. !
Heavy strings of jack rabbits, or prairie
plover, or quail, or duck hung from their
saddles or weighted their bags, and not |